Assessment in Online Courses: Practical Examples

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Assessment in Online Courses Practical Examples

• Dr. Roger Von Holzen
• Ms. Darla Runyon
• Northwest Missouri State University

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Heard in the Halls

• If we are to be required to assess educational
  quality and learning by virtue of how long a
  student sits in a seat
• we have focused on the wrong end of the
  student.Laura Palmer Noone

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Heard in the Halls

• How do you do online exams?
• Question based on notion that online assessment
  must follow assessment methods used on campus
• Not necessarily true
• In an online environment
• Major change to the role of the instructor
• Shift from the deliverer of content to student
  mentor
• Function of assessment techniques must also
  change

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Online Assessment
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An Interactive Mentoring Opportunity

• Need to view assessment as a teaching tool and
  not as an evaluation mechanism
• Use quizzes and tests as interactive mentoring
  opportunities
• Enable students to evaluate their own progress
  through the course materials

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Beyond the Rhetoric

• Quizzes and tests should be viewed as means of
  promoting learning
• Open book and extensive testing time
• Should be only a small component of the overall
  assessment strategy for the online course

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Beyond the Rhetoric

• Evolution from seat-time/credit hours to
  outcomes-based education as a measure of learning
• Acknowledging present reality
• What matters is whether the student has actually
  learned
• Blooms Taxonomy

• Often difficult to getfaculty to change

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The New Role of Assessment

• Assessment techniques should be based on desired
  learning outcomes
• Assessment results should be used by students to
  evaluate progress through course materials
• Provide the instructor with
• evidence of effectiveness of course materials
• indications of content areas that need further
  enhancement and/or development

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Assessment Strategies
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Assessment Strategy

• Cumulative process
• Aids in forming student assessment profiles
• snapshot of student understanding
• Profile constructed by
• building learning outcomes based on critical
  course content
• use of applicable assessment methods to determine
  students understanding of learning outcomes

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Assessment Strategy

• Provides guidance to further develop conceptual
  framework
• Continuous process (formative)

• Should guide the student to mastery of the
  learning outcomes
• Assessment strategy becomes foundation for
  developing the instructional design of the online
  course

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Learning Outcomes

• Determine critical course content
• Discern what the students should know or
  accomplish based on the critical content
• What must the student know in order to function
  in authentic situations?
• Decide what evidence is acceptable as proof of
  knowledge or accomplishment of the learning
  outcome
• Selected student performance must furnish the
  method of assessment of critical content

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Communication of Learning Outcomes

• Include in syllabus
• List in course introductory module
• List for each individual module or unit
• Convey in related activities and assignments

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Assessment Strategy Steps

• Assist faculty in integrating new assessment
  techniques and developing an overall assessment
  strategy
• Administer pre-assessment
• Provides guidance in the development of
  appropriate learning activities
• Present critical concepts through interactive,
  instructional concepts and activities

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Assessment Strategy Steps

• Punctuate course with short assessment
  opportunities
• Provide student with performance feedback on
  learning concepts and activities
• Provide a diverse array of assessment methods to
  reflect student understanding of the learning
  outcomes
• Provide opportunities for relearning and
  reassessment

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Assessment Strategy Steps

• Develop a post-assessment (summative)
• Provides evaluation of the overall student
  performance
• Indicates ultimate mastery of critical content
  and ability to incorporate content into
  appropriate situations

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Online Assessment

• Provides an organized and systematic approach to
  assessment
• Digital exam building features
• Variety of traditional testing methods are
  available
• Multiple Choice
• True and False
• Fill-in-the-Blank
• Multiple Answer
• Ordering
• Matching
• Short Answer/Essay
• Options to pool questions and control the
  delivery of the material

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Online Assessment

• Traditional methods should only be a small
  component of the overall assessment strategy
• Learning outcomes should be assessed using
  applicable assessment techniques
• Online delivery provides an environment conducive
  to incorporating
• a diverse array of assessment techniques
• strategies that may be employed across a variety
  of course subject areas

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Online Assessment

• Flexibility of delivery allows for a more
  student-centered approach to assessment and
  feedback

• Proctored exams
• Some situations may require on-site examinations
• Expenses and effort involved must be considered

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Academic Dishonesty
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Course Design and Development

• Faculty need to discuss and develop new
  perspectives on assessment
• Issues pertaining to academic dishonesty and
  conduct in an online course should be examined

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Academic Policies

• Academic dishonesty and honor code policies
  should be clearly stated early in the course
• Include in the course syllabus
• Incorporate a student agreement

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Dealing with Plagiarism

• A paper development process should be followed
• Paper or Project Prospectus
• A brief, structured first-draft plan for a term
  paper or term project
• Submission of rough drafts
• Communicate with students to learn their writing
  style

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Practical Examples
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One-Sentence Summary

• Challenges students to answer the questions "Who
  does what to whom, when, where, how, and why?"
  about a given topic, and then to synthesize those
  answers into a single summary sentence.
• Incorporate within digital journals

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One Minute Submission

• The instructor asks students to submit comments
  related to the following two questions "What was
  the most important thing you learned from this
  lesson?" and "What important question remains
  unanswered?"
• Students then submit their responses via e-mail
  or in a threaded discussion

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Punctuated Lectures

• Requires students to go through four steps
• 1. listen/view a lecture or demonstration
• 2. reflect on the lecture or demonstration after
  a portion of the presentation has been completed
  
• 3. write down any insights gained
• 4. submit feedback to the instructor in the form
  of short notes
• Could be incorporated as part of a threaded
  discussion

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Concept Maps

• Drawings or diagrams showing the connections that
  students make between a major concept the
  instructor focuses on and other concepts they
  have learned
• Maps could be generated within the online
  whiteboard

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Analytic Memos

• Requires students to write a one- or two-page
  analysis of a specific problem or issue
• Audience identified as an employer, a client, or
  a stakeholder who needs the student's analysis in
  the decision-making process

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Exam Evaluations

• Allows instructor to obtain student feedback
  about exam or specific exam questions
• May help provide verification as to the
  authorship of exam answers

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• In attempting to harness the capabilities of
  digital interfaces, the mistake is often made of
  recreating a classroom-teaching model within an
  online learning environment.
• Online technology designed to mimic the
  classroom becomes a restriction and a barrier to
  the teachers ability to impart knowledge.
  Nishikant Sonwalkar

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Sunday--Session 6 (1000-1115) Salon 3
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Dr. Roger Von Holzen, Director Center for
Information Technology in Education rvh_at_mail.nwmis
souri.edu
Ms. Darla Runyon Assistant Director/Curriculum
Design Specialist Center for Information
Technology in Education drunyon_at_mail.nwmissouri.ed
u
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